How To Draw The Female Face

I like to do a final check before I erase all my guidelines. Check to see if the facial features need changing. Perhaps you’d like to change the nose length or eye shape.

Note: Remember to use an HB pencil with light pressure for all steps so you can easily erase your guidelines in the end. I used a lot of pressure in the examples so you can clearly see what I’m doing.

I like to draw my noses at a medium length, keeping the tip of the nose under Line 1. The angle of the nose depends on the face I’m drawing, but I tend to draw them at a 50 degree angle.

Remember to give the hair some volume by leaving lots of space between the head and the hair. For more detailed instructions on how to draw hair, visit this tutorial this tutorial.

Note: Remember to use an HB pencil with the lightest amount of pressure for each of the steps so you can easily erase outlines when you’re done the drawing.

From the jawline, draw an outline for the ear. This outline can be anywhere from roughly the CENTER LINE to Line 2.

When you’re comfortable, try drawing some faces without the ruler on the side. The examples below have very rough guidelines. In fact, if you look closely you can see just how sloppy they are. Once you get the hang of it, you should be able to draw realistic and unique female faces on the whim!

Finally, use a ruler to draw a faint line down the middle of the face vertically.

Struggling to draw female faces from the profile view? This tutorial gives you a great way to practice getting your proportions right and eventually being comfortable enough to draw quick sketches.

After you’ve drawn the lips, you might feel the need to lengthen or shorten the chin so it’s more proportional to the rest of the face. This is completely normal. Happens to me all the time. That’s why it’s important to draw using faint lines so you can easily fix things.

The CENTER LINE and Line 2 are general boundaries for the ears. You can learn how to draw realistic ears here.

Click the following link and hit the download button beside the printer icon to download the PDF: RapidFireArt Tutorials – How to Draw a Female Face

Females tend to have shorter chins than their male counterparts, so a long chin can display a more masculine look.

If you’ve already read my tutorial on drawing noses, place your circle above Line 2. I’m going to go with a short, narrow nose with a narrow bridge.

This tutorial is focused only on structure and proportions. If you want to learn how to shade a face, visit this page.

If you haven’t read my nose tutorial, go here first. I prefer to draw the nose without the circles, but you can use that technique if you want.

Draw a circle and make a small horizontal line at the bottom for the chin. It’s position should be roughly half of the circle’s diameter vertically. This matters because the circle was drawn freehandedly, so the horizontal diameter could be different.

Don’t worry about shaping the jaw or chin just yet. These are just rough guidelines!

Measure the length of the face and draw a ruler to the side of your drawing using a straight edge. Then divide it into 8 equal spaces length-wise.

If you’ve gone through this tutorial a few times already and want to try it without the ruler, draw your lines in this order: CENTER LINE, 2, 3 , B, A, C, essentially breaking sections of your drawing in half over and over again.

When you draw the eyes, keep in mind that females generally have wider, more open eyes than males. If you want to learn how to draw realistic eye shapes and how to size your irises properly, visit this tutorial.

Once you’re happy with your results, use a hard eraser to clean up all the lines. An electric eraser works very well for this kind of work.

If you love RapidFireArt tutorials and want to support what I do, check out my Patreon page where you can support RFA and earn cool rewards at the same time!

If you’ve already practiced my tutorial on drawing lips, place your triangle under the nose. The base of the triangle should be drawn inside the square. The top of the triangle should extend to wherever the bottom of the nose is.

After you’ve grasped the drawing method above, try drawing faces without the ruler. Here are a few faces I created using rough measurements. Stretch your imagination and get comfortable with drawing faces quickly. How many faces can you draw in under 20 minutes?

After cleaning those lines, I like to use a kneaded eraser to dab away dark spots from where the lines intersected with my drawing.

When you’re done, draw the jawline to connect the circle to the chin. Females have all sorts of face shapes, but for this example I’m going to stick with a smooth, tapered jawline that’s less angular.

Draw an oval and a line at the bottom. The line should be distanced away from the oval at about half of the oval’s vertical diameter.

I know there are a lot of measurements in this tutorial, but I think it’s very important, especially if you’re a beginner. Once you understand proportions you can try this tutorial again without the ruler method.

From the nose’s base, form a natural curve that dips down through Line 2 and wraps back in towards the face, creating a full top lip. The corner of the mouth should not extend too far past the nostril.

Extend the jawline beyond the vertical line that goes down the center of the face. When drawing females, I tend to give the jawline a soft or rounded, less angular appearance.

Another highly requested tutorial fresh out of the oven! This one is, again based off my original method, but with a few small changes here and there to create a female face with soft features. I’ll explain the differences in each step as we go along.

To find where to place the eye, draw a vertical line from the corner of the lip to the CENTER LINE. The eye should be drawn where those two lines meet. If you want more details on drawing an eye from the side, visit this tutorial.

Home Learn How to Draw How to draw a female face (side view)

To draw the nose, extend the two lines at the inner corner of each eye all the way to Line 3. This will serve as a guideline for the nose’s width.

And click here for a super detailed tutorial + video on how to draw a pair of realistic eyes.

Connect the oval to the horizontal line to complete the shape of the head. Then, draw a long straight line down the middle of the oval.

From the center of each iris, draw a vertical line all the way down to Line 3. This will give us a boundary for the mouth.

On the CENTER LINE, draw 4 ticks that separate the face into 5 equal spaces horizontally. If you’re like me and you drew a very narrow cheek/jaw line, you’ll want to take the full diameter of the circle into account (The two dotted lines mark the full diameter of the head).

Use the length of the head to make a ruler on the side of your drawing. Don’t draw it too close to the face because you want to make room for the nose.

Label each of the ticks like the image on the left and once you’re done, use a ruler to carefully draw faint lines on the face through the ticks labelled: CENTER LINE, 2, 3, A and C.

If this tutorial was helpful to you and you’d love to see more, share it with your friends. Your support will help me produce more quality, free tutorials!

Like my teaching style and want to make a request? Drop me a comment below and I’ll see what I can do for you 🙂

Click the following link and hit the download button beside the printer icon to download the PDF: RapidFireArt Tutorials – How to Draw a Female Face (Side View)

Click here if you want to learn how to draw realistic eyebrows

In the meantime, happy drawing and I’ll see you again soon with another awesome tutorial!

Happy with how your drawing looks? Whip out your eraser and have fun erasing your guidelines! To save time, I like to use an electric eraser followed up by a kneaded eraser to get into those tight spots or overlapping lines.

Draw the front and back of the neck. Avoid drawing the neck using vertical lines. Also try to avoid using straight lines, as this will appear very unnatural.

The picture on the left shows the top of the brow bone. I added this so you can see how the eyebrows are positioned naturally in regards to the bone structure.

When drawing hair on females, keep in mind that females generally have narrower and shorter foreheads compared to males. I drew the hairline for my character well below Line A and drew more hair at the sides of the temple, making sure not to bring the hair in too close to the eyebrow.

Click here to see the SIMPLE version of this tutorial. It’s a faster method and it’s also paired with a video!

Now that we’re done with the guidelines, let’s start drawing the top portion of the head. Where the CENTER LINE meets the face, draw a shallow curve. I’m trying to avoid a deep curve because I don’t want to bring too much attention to the brow area. Just trying to keep it looking soft and subtle.

Keep in mind that your chin and jawline does not need to follow the exact guideline of the head/face shape.

My challenge to you is to fill an entire page in your sketchbook with rows and rows of faces. Make them small so you can fit as many as you can (I actually find it more difficult to draw faces on a large scale). It might take 5 or more tries to get the hang of it. If you’ve filled the entire page but your faces don’t turn out quite right, come back and follow this tutorial again.

Follow my drawing method 2-3 times and then try some quick sketches without the ruler. You’ll astonish yourself with the level of improvement after only a few practice sessions!

Once that’s done, draw a slight bump for the brow and then use the oval as a rough guide to draw the forehead and rest of the upper head.

In the image on the right, you can see that the eyebrows are drawn below Line C. For a surprised expression, the eyebrows will be pulled up closer to Line C.

Follow the general shape of the eye to form the eyebrow. Keep the eyebrow well below Line C for a relaxed look. For a more surprised expression, draw the eyebrows a little higher and stretch the eye up along with it.

Draw the forehead’s hairline starting between Line A and B. When you draw the hair at the sideburns (hair between the ear and cheek), keep your lines extra light because females have very sparse sideburns. Don’t forget to give the hair some volume, for more on that, visit my hair tutorial.

Divide your ruler into 8 equal spaces and use a straight edge to draw lines from each tick through the head. Don’t forget to keep your lines light. It’ll be a pain to erase later on.

When you’re done, check to see if there’s enough space for the chin or if there’s way too much space. Adjust the lips accordingly to prepare for the next step.